


Mistakes Of Our Fathers

by aliitvodeson



Series: And it's the strangest thing [2]
Category: Age of Apocalypse (Comics), X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Based on a roleplay, Drabble, Gen, Reference to Rape, Wild Child holds a major grudge, au where the world surives, the weird fall out of having children, weird pairings that only happen in roleplays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-19
Updated: 2015-05-19
Packaged: 2018-03-31 06:03:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3967141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aliitvodeson/pseuds/aliitvodeson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thirteen years ago, Fabian Cortez was working for Apocalypse, rounding up those who would stand against the true order of the world. One of those poor souls he captured was Clarice Ferguson, who would be rescued only half a day later, but who would walk away with something far more than nightmares and bruises.<br/>And now the son who grew up an orphan is meeting the father he was taught to hate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mistakes Of Our Fathers

**Author's Note:**

> This is based off a roleplay I did with thecorteztwins on tumblr. Basically, Fabian captures Clarice, tortures her for the location of the rest of the X-Men, and rapes her before the X-Men rescue her. This goes off on the tangent that Clarice becomes pregnant from that encounter.

She starts waking up to giant nests of blankets, all piled up together around her, made up of torn rags and stolen clothes. She’ll return them over the day to the various people on the team who’ve discovered their property missing, and then wake up in the morning again to find the nest of fabric around her once more. And there will be Kyle, looking at her from his spot by the doorway, like he expects her to thank him for stealing from the rest of the group for her.  
Turns out, he’s picked up on things long before anyone else can.  
Missed periods aren’t what gives it away. None of the girls have regular periods. Missing hers when it’s supposed to come two weeks after her rescue doesn’t even make her pause. Instead, what clues them all in (probably pissing Kyle off in how long it took them to understand why he’s building the nests) is the day Mister Creed walks in to find her bent over the toilet puking out the tiny breakfast she’d just had.  
After that, it doesn’t take a genius.  
The place they live, the world they are faced with, there’s no way to give her an abortion. She cries and Mister Creed digs up the last of the hot chocolate to give her when she finally stops.  
And of course every moment that she thinks of what’s happened to her brings back the memories of the horrible torture that she endured.  
The broken bones heal. The bruises heal up. She stops feeling the urge to shave off her hair.  
Even the nightmares ease by the time she starts to show.  
Kyle starts disappearing for long amounts of time, and will come back dragging wild animals with mangled wounds, dropping them before her with an eager smile. Mister Creed teaches her to strip the fur and cook the meat, meals ranging from deer to wolves to even once a small bear. And Kyle ensures that the furs are added to the warm nest she spends more and more time in.  
Eight short months after a long night of torture, little baby Victor Ferguson comes into the world.  
Mister Creed takes to being a grandfather like a fish to water, and Kyle is the perfect example of over-dotting uncle. They expand Nanny’s programming to protect him as well, and Charlie becomes like an older brother from the growing boy. And when the team goes into the final battle, Kyle stays behind to watch him, a growling predator to hold the home base.  
So when his mother and father disappear in the aftermath of the battle, three year old Victor is left with his adopted uncle as his only remaining family.  
And of course, the feral known as Wild Child is even less of a proper parent than his namesake or mother would ever have been.  
Over the course of the next ten years, he’s raised as a full member of Magneto’s household, trained in tactics and fighting, adopted brother of Charlie. He grows up fast, as all children in the world do. He hears stories of his mother and grandfather from the mouths of the people who knew them best.  
And he hears of his father as well. Of the servant of Apocalypse who tortured his mother, and nearly killed her.  
His powers come in at the tender age of thirteen and a half, the ability to play with people’s sense. Overload them, dampen them, mess them up completely. Meals in the Lehnsherr household are fairly odd until he gets a handle on his powers. He still likes playing with how Pietro tastes his food though. That time he slipped the fibre bites into his cereal and he didn’t know until he was stuck on the toilet was the best. Victor totally blames Charlie for the idea.  
And because Apocalypse left children to grow up fast, Victor joins Kyle on patrols in routing out the last holdouts of the dangerous ruler’s followers.  
Kyle of course hasn’t forgotten the scent of the man who tormented Clarice. He goes wild when he smells it, and though Victor doesn’t know what has driven his uncle into such a wild frenzy, his life has been spent trusting the feral’s instincts.  
He follows.  
The corner the scarred man in the ruins of a breeding pen.  
Victor stares at the man’s tight and ugly skin, the terrible twist to his features from old wounds and painful years. The man stares back, and Kyle glares at the space between the two of them. With a thought, he freezes Kyle’s sense of smell, just so the feral doesn’t tear the man apart before he can learn who he is.  
“Who are you,” they both ask, and the stranger frowns, raising his hands like he’s tracing the shape of the dark diamonds on Victor’s face.  
“Victor,” he says, and waits for the answer.  
With a twist of his mouth, the man responds with, “Fabian Cortez.”  
Victor’s back goes straight. Suddenly, everything makes sense. The body of scars, Kyle’s reaction, the strange need to know who the man is and not just letting Kyle loose on him. Of course, knowing who the man makes holding back the lanky feral feel slightly wrong.  
“Cortez,” he repeats, and now it’s his turn to scowl. “You’ve got some explaining to do then.”  
“And why would that be?”  
“Clarice Ferguson.” Not a trace of recognition. “Blink. You captured her. Tortured her. Raped her.” And it’s horrible how none of this seems to be bringing back the knowledge of the woman that Victor’s describing. “She was my mother. I’m not going to dignify what you did by calling you my father.”  
And that’s when he sees it hit Cortez. When the knowledge shows on his face. When the pieces go together.  
“My... Son?”  
“No. I’m not your son. Clarice Ferguson was my mother. Some bastard with your name gave me his DNA. That’s all you are. A DNA giver.”  
“You’re my son!” Cortez charges forward, and Kyle gets in his way, leaping in front of the much smaller Victor and snarling at the taller mutant. It hardly seems to even phase the man. “My son! Raised by those traitors. I can’t believe it! This is entirely horrible! I can’t believe she just left you to be raised amongst those savages! That’s the worse thing that could happen to you!”  
Victor lifts his chin, expression disdainfully blank. “Mom died when I was three. Her and Grandpa died, fighting Apocalypse. Fighting the man you served. They didn’t make it back. And all you can complain about is the people they left me with?”  
Cortez reaches for him, scarred hand shaking, and Victor fears for his own sanity. After Apocalypse had fallen, they’d found the files that told about his father’s powers. The ability to manipulate mutant powers. How he’d brought so many to their knees, including Victor’s own mother. “You’re more than those traitors, Victor. Did they tell you that you’re like those lesser creatures? That everyone’s equal? They’re liars. You’re so much better than them.”  
Victor closes his eyes, and when he opens them they’re burning green, solid and angry, like his mother’s so much when he uses his powers. He inherited his mother’s pink skin markings, and when he grabs onto the physical senses of others, the green solid across his eyeballs, the distinctive look of his mother.  
He gives Kyle back the ability to smell, giving his brain the ability to pick up on the dark stench of the man who raped Clarice nearly a decade and a half ago. And with a single, dark word, he bids goodbye to the last vestiges of himself that thought one day he’d meet his father and be happy with the person that he saw.  
“Run.”


End file.
